Climate change destroying fisheries: not just Someone Else's Problem - Atheist Nexus2016-12-10T01:13:50Zhttp://atheistnexus.org/forum/topics/climate-change-destroying-fisheries-not-just-someone-else-s?groupUrl=environmentalatheists&commentId=2182797%3AComment%3A2065563&xg_source=activity&groupId=2182797%3AGroup%3A29029&feed=yes&xn_auth=noThe Yale-based 2016 Environme…tag:atheistnexus.org,2016-01-24:2182797:Comment:26665332016-01-24T19:00:01.060ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>The Yale-based 2016 Environmental Performance Index is bleak on fish.</p>
<blockquote><p>The world’s fisheries are in a dire state, with most fish stocks at risk of collapse.</p>
<p>Data gaps create hurdles and impasses for tracking progress towards meeting targets, including benchmarks for protecting fisheries,...</p>
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<p><a href="http://environment.yale.edu/news/article/2016-yale-environmental-performance-index-released/" target="_blank">Environmental Performance Index Reveals…</a></p>
<p>The Yale-based 2016 Environmental Performance Index is bleak on fish.</p>
<blockquote><p>The world’s fisheries are in a dire state, with most fish stocks at risk of collapse.</p>
<p>Data gaps create hurdles and impasses for tracking progress towards meeting targets, including benchmarks for protecting fisheries,...</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://environment.yale.edu/news/article/2016-yale-environmental-performance-index-released/" target="_blank">Environmental Performance Index Reveals Dire State of Fisheries, Worsening Air Pollution</a></p> Tuna and mackerel populations…tag:atheistnexus.org,2015-09-16:2182797:Comment:26442552015-09-16T03:42:57.208ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/15/tuna-and-mackerel-populations-suffer-catastrophic-74-decline-research-shows" target="_blank">Tuna and mackerel populations suffer catastrophic 74% decline, research shows</a></p>
<p>Do you enjoy fish? &lt;sigh&gt;</p>
<blockquote><p><br></br>... we face losing species critical to human food security, unless drastic action is taken to halt overfishing and other threats to marine life.</p>
<p>Louise Heaps, chief advisor on marine policy…</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/15/tuna-and-mackerel-populations-suffer-catastrophic-74-decline-research-shows" target="_blank">Tuna and mackerel populations suffer catastrophic 74% decline, research shows</a></p>
<p>Do you enjoy fish? &lt;sigh&gt;</p>
<blockquote><p><br/>... we face losing species critical to human food security, unless drastic action is taken to halt overfishing and other threats to marine life.</p>
<p>Louise Heaps, chief advisor on marine policy at WWF UK, said: “This is catastrophic. We are destroying vital food sources, and the ecology of our oceans.”</p>
<p>... <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/04/warning-over-pacific-bluefin-tuna-stocks-as-japan-meeting-ends-in-stalemate" class=" u-underline">bluefin tuna, now on the verge of extinction</a>, but other close relatives commonly found on restaurant menus or in tins, such as yellowtail tuna and albacore, are now also becoming increasingly scarce.</p>
<p>“I am terrified about <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/feb/23/climate-change-pollution-shellfish-ocean-acidification" class=" u-underline">acidification</a>,” Heaps told the Guardian. “That situation is looking very bleak....</p>
<p>She predicts that all of the world’s coral reefs could be effectively lost by 2050, if current trends are allowed to continue unchecked,...</p>
<p>... a quarter of shark species predicted to become extinct in only a decade ...</p>
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<p><a target="_blank" href="http://cdn.worldlifestyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/LEAD_orthorexia11111.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://cdn.worldlifestyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/LEAD_orthorexia11111.jpg?width=450" width="450"/></a><a href="http://www.worldlifestyle.com/health-fitness/6-eating-disorder-myths-we-have-to-stop-believing" target="_blank">image source</a></p> The sardine population along…tag:atheistnexus.org,2015-04-16:2182797:Comment:25931472015-04-16T00:32:40.710ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>The sardine population along the West Coast has collapsed.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Sardine-population-collapses-prompts-ban-on-6197380.php" target="_blank">Sardine population collapses, prompting ban on commercial fishing</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&amp;channel=bayarea&amp;inlineLink=1&amp;searchindex=gsa&amp;query=%22Pacific+Fishery+Management+Council%22">Pacific Fishery Management Council</a> agreed to close…</p>
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<p>The sardine population along the West Coast has collapsed.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Sardine-population-collapses-prompts-ban-on-6197380.php" target="_blank">Sardine population collapses, prompting ban on commercial fishing</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&amp;channel=bayarea&amp;inlineLink=1&amp;searchindex=gsa&amp;query=%22Pacific+Fishery+Management+Council%22">Pacific Fishery Management Council</a> agreed to close the fishery from Mexico to the Canadian border starting July 1, when the 2015 season begins, after federal scientists documented a 91 percent decline in sardine numbers along the West Coast since 2007.</p>
<p>“This is one of the most lucrative fisheries in California, so to completely shut it down is a huge deal.”</p>
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<p>They should have said, "This <em><strong>was</strong></em> one of the most lucrative fisheries in California."</p> New data on past and future c…tag:atheistnexus.org,2013-05-15:2182797:Comment:22342312013-05-15T19:55:02.436ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>New data on past and future changes to fish catches from climate change.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/fish-thermometer-reveals-longstanding-global-impact-of-climate-change/1661657.html" target="_blank">'Fish Thermometer' Reveal Impact of Climate Change</a></p>
<blockquote><p>... scientists at the University of British Columbia <a href="http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/fact-sheets/warming-oceans-are-reshaping-fisheries-85899475142" target="_blank">say warmer global…</a></p>
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<p>New data on past and future changes to fish catches from climate change.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/fish-thermometer-reveals-longstanding-global-impact-of-climate-change/1661657.html" target="_blank">'Fish Thermometer' Reveal Impact of Climate Change</a></p>
<blockquote><p>... scientists at the University of British Columbia <a href="http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/fact-sheets/warming-oceans-are-reshaping-fisheries-85899475142" target="_blank">say warmer global temperatures have been affecting the world's oceans and fisheries</a> for some 40 years.<br/> <br/> They used known temperature preferences of fish and other marine species as a sort of "thermometer" to gauge the extent of the change, and they saw a gradual migration of fish species away from the equator into cooler, deeper waters.<br/> <br/> The researchers analyzed data from global fisheries from 1970 to 2006 and found the catch was increasingly dominated by warm-water species.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://gdb.voanews.com/B0506943-AE23-4DC7-9676-5C8505C1CAB4.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://gdb.voanews.com/B0506943-AE23-4DC7-9676-5C8505C1CAB4.jpg"/></a><a target="_blank" href="http://gdb.voanews.com/FD488645-63FC-42E8-8719-87C2AA897B1A.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://gdb.voanews.com/FD488645-63FC-42E8-8719-87C2AA897B1A.jpg"/></a>... while boats off the northeastern coast of the U.S. were catching new species typically found closer to the tropics, "<strong>in the tropics, climate change meant fewer marine species and reduced catches, with serious implications for food security</strong>." [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote> Caribbean sardine collapse li…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-11-07:2182797:Comment:20958322012-11-07T18:24:44.079ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/nov/07/caribbean-sardine-collapse-climate-change" target="_blank">Caribbean sardine collapse linked to climate change</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The collapse of sardine fisheries in the southern Caribbean during the past decade may have been driven by global <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-change" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Climate change">climate change</a>, according to a study.</p>
<p>The sardine,…</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/nov/07/caribbean-sardine-collapse-climate-change" target="_blank">Caribbean sardine collapse linked to climate change</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The collapse of sardine fisheries in the southern Caribbean during the past decade may have been driven by global <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-change" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Climate change">climate change</a>, according to a study.</p>
<p>The sardine, <em>Sardinella aurita</em>, feeds on plankton but since 2005 plankton levels in the Caribbean have reduced significantly, which, coupled with overfishing, may have contributed to the collapse of these fisheries. They have plummeted by as much as 87%, the study says.</p>
<p>The research team said the decreasing levels of plankton production are the result of a reduction in ocean upwelling, whereby nutrients crucial for plankton production are brought from the sea's floor to the surface. The drop in upwelling has, in turn, been driven by changes in wind patterns and wind strength, themselves driven by global climate change.</p>
<p>... water temperature has increased by 1.1C [since 1996] – a very slight increase, slow but steady." The temperature increase contributes to the stratification of the sea, further limiting the upwelling and thus reducing plankton production.</p>
<p>The Venezuelan sardine catch has dropped from about 200,000 tonnes in 2004 to less than 40,000 tonnes today, Lodeiros said, adding: "The same goes for other areas ...</p>
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<p><a target="_blank" href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/pictures/2012/11/6/1352219906251/sardines-on-white-backgro-008.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/pictures/2012/11/6/1352219906251/sardines-on-white-backgro-008.jpg?width=400" width="400"/></a></p> Ocean animals shrink ten time…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-11-06:2182797:Comment:20948742012-11-06T17:41:25.261ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>Ocean animals shrink ten times faster as temperature rises than land animals.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121105151334.htm" target="_blank">Warming Temperatures Cause Aquatic Animals to Shrink the Most</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Warmer temperatures cause greater reduction in the adult sizes of aquatic animals than in land-dwellers in a new study by scientists from Queen Mary, University of London and the University of Liverpool.</p>
<p>... the body size of marine…</p>
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<p>Ocean animals shrink ten times faster as temperature rises than land animals.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121105151334.htm" target="_blank">Warming Temperatures Cause Aquatic Animals to Shrink the Most</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Warmer temperatures cause greater reduction in the adult sizes of aquatic animals than in land-dwellers in a new study by scientists from Queen Mary, University of London and the University of Liverpool.</p>
<p>... the body size of marine and freshwater species are affected disproportionately by warmer temperatures. This could have implications for aquatic food webs and the production of food by aquaculture.</p>
<p>"Aquatic animals shrink 10 times more than land-dwellers in species the size of large insects or small fish. While animals in water decrease in size by 5 percent for every degree Celsius of warming, similarly sized species on land shrink, on average, by just half a percent."</p>
<p>The research also demonstrates that the most likely cause of this difference in size is due to the much lower availability of oxygen in water than in air.</p>
<p>"Given that fish and other aquatic organisms provide 3 billion people with at least 15 percent of their animal protein intake, our work highlights the importance of understanding how warming in the future will affect ocean, lake and river dwelling species."</p>
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<p></p> Here's a nice summary of what…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-10-24:2182797:Comment:20860652012-10-24T23:16:48.060ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>Here's a nice summary of what's destroying fisheries in chart form.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mnn.com/sites/default/files/user-2855/CollapsingSeas-final.jpg" target="_blank">Collapsing Seas</a></p>
<p>Here's a nice summary of what's destroying fisheries in chart form.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mnn.com/sites/default/files/user-2855/CollapsingSeas-final.jpg" target="_blank">Collapsing Seas</a></p> It's not only fish supplies w…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-10-14:2182797:Comment:20741132012-10-14T23:22:24.880ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>It's not only fish supplies which are disappearing.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/oct/14/un-global-food-crisis-warning" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">UN warns of looming worldwide food crisis in 2013</a></p>
<blockquote><p>• Global grain reserves hit critically low levels<br></br>• Extreme weather means climate 'is no longer reliable'<br></br>• Rising food prices threaten disaster and unrest…</p>
<p></p>
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<p>It's not only fish supplies which are disappearing.</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/oct/14/un-global-food-crisis-warning" target="_blank">UN warns of looming worldwide food crisis in 2013</a></p>
<blockquote><p>• Global grain reserves hit critically low levels<br/>• Extreme weather means climate 'is no longer reliable'<br/>• Rising food prices threaten disaster and unrest</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Observer/Columnist/Columnists/2012/10/13/1350144390702/Zimbabwe-peasant-farmer-008.jpg"><img class="align-left" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Observer/Columnist/Columnists/2012/10/13/1350144390702/Zimbabwe-peasant-farmer-008.jpg"/></a>A Zimbabwean peasant farmer in a crop of maize destroyed by drought. One expert warns: 'The geopolitics of food is fast overshadowing the geopolitics of oil.' Photograph: Howard Burditt/Reuters</p>
<p></p>
<p>World grain reserves are so dangerously low that severe weather in the United States or other food-exporting countries could trigger a major hunger crisis next year, the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/unitednations" title="More from guardian.co.uk on United Nations">United Nations</a> has warned.</p>
<p>The figures come as one of the world's leading environmentalists issued a warning that the global food supply system could collapse at any point, leaving hundreds of millions more people hungry, sparking widespread riots and bringing down governments. In a shocking new assessment of the prospects of meeting food needs, Lester Brown, president of the Earth policy research centre in Washington, says that the climate is no longer reliable and the demands for food are growing so fast that a breakdown is inevitable, unless urgent action is taken.</p>
<p>"Food shortages undermined earlier civilisations. We are on the same path. Each country is now fending for itself. The world is living one year to the next," he writes in a new book.</p>
<p>According to Brown, we are seeing the start of a food supply breakdown with a dash by speculators to "grab" millions of square miles of cheap farmland, the doubling of international food prices in a decade, and the dramatic rundown of countries' food reserves.</p>
</blockquote> A "new" study?????? ROFLMAO!!…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-10-02:2182797:Comment:20659072012-10-02T12:12:54.679ZTNT666http://atheistnexus.org/profile/TNT
<p>A "new" study?????? ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>The oceans are practically dead! relative to what they were just a couple of centuries ago.</p>
<p>A "new" study?????? ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>The oceans are practically dead! relative to what they were just a couple of centuries ago.</p> A new study predicts the loss…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-10-01:2182797:Comment:20654932012-10-01T17:41:06.868ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>A new study predicts the loss of coral reefs, essential to many fish.</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Limiting climate change to two degrees C won’t save most coral reefs, according to new, state-of-the-art research.</strong><span id="more-112584"></span></p>
<p>About 70 percent of corals are projected to suffer from long-term degradation by 2030 with two degrees C of warming, the first <a href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1674.html">comprehensive global…</a></p>
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<p>A new study predicts the loss of coral reefs, essential to many fish.</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Limiting climate change to two degrees C won’t save most coral reefs, according to new, state-of-the-art research.</strong><span id="more-112584"></span></p>
<p>About 70 percent of corals are projected to suffer from long-term degradation by 2030 with two degrees C of warming, the first <a href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1674.html">comprehensive global survey</a> reported Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change.</p>
<p>The planet will get far hotter than two degrees C based on current commitments by countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning oil, gas and coal. <strong>Humanity is on course to heat up the atmosphere an average of three and even four degrees C</strong>, according to the Climate Action Tracker, an international scientific monitor. <strong>Those temperature levels are</strong> what most scientists consider <strong>“catastrophic”</strong>.</p>
<p><strong>Coral reefs are</strong> considered by many to be <strong>one of the life-support systems essential for human survival. For more than 2.6 billion people, seafood is the main source of protein. Corals act as the nurseries and habitat for many fish species, and are vital for up to 33 percent of all ocean species</strong>, according to the World Conservation Union (IUCN). [emphasis mine]</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/09/deeper-co2-cuts-needed-to-save-corals/" target="_blank">Deeper CO2 Cuts Needed to Save Corals</a></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://trendsupdates.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/dead-coral-reef.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://trendsupdates.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/dead-coral-reef.jpg"/></a>image from <a href="http://trendsupdates.com/result-of-coral-reef-deaths-loss-in-billions-of-dollars/" target="_blank">Result of coral reef deaths: loss in billions of dollars</a></p>